Thomas Hooker Imperial Porter

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

Dark brown color, with medium beige head. Flavor is chocolate malt, a touch of roasted malt and slight caramel sweetness with a munich like nuttiness in the finish. Medium bodied with a medium hoppy bitterness. Creamy throughout and just a good big porter.

Initially fizzy and brassy. Bottled in 2006 and consumed in 2008. Taste is smoky, malty. Looks like, well... a porter. Lots of foam initially, but quickly mellowed out to a good level and tan foam. Good bittering hops profile. Aftertaste is earthy.

Imperial stouts, imperial IPAs, imperial pilsners, Imperial porters. Keep them coming, as long as Imperial translates into rich, intense, robust beer. This poured dark brown with a big tan head. Chocolate, roasted coffee, roasted barley, sweet caramel in the nose. A coffee/toffee flavor and some finishing hop bitterness. Nicely crafted and tasty.

(500 ml bottle (2006) from <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/maine/portland/ target=blank>Downeast Beverage Co., cellared for 9 mos. after purchase) Something’s off...Pours dark brown with three fingers of a sturdy, even tan head that recedes quite slowly to about 1/4" and stays. Aroma is rather weak, esp. for the style - it is milk chocolatey and perhaps some molasses, although nothing jumped out at me. Mouthfeel is fairly full but kind of fizzy and chalky. Nice sturdy rings of lacing - pretty nice appearance overall although kind of bland. Flavor is not particularly good - lots of sourish overtones, underneath is fairly weak chocolate and really nothing else. Medium bitter bite in finish. Even if the sourishness means infection or something I still didn’t get enough flavor or complexity underneath to get excited about. Actually hard to finish the bottle.

500ml Bottle (Bottled 2006): Sweet, very malty aroma. Smells of roasted malts, chocolate, molasses, soy sauce, licorice, and hops. Poured black in color with a tiny, very rocky, light brown head that lasted throughout. Opaque. Small lacing. Flavor is medium sweet and lightly bitter. Tastes of malts, roasting, chocolate, coffee, piney hops, soy sauce, and molasses. Medium body. Texture is chalky and on the thin side.

Pours a deep black color with almost no head. Good aroma and flavor of chocolate, roasted malt and hops. The body is medium with a liquorous texture and almost flat carbonation. It’s a shame the beer was almost flat, I liked it but I know I would have love it in a better condition.

Bottle. Dark, with a thick, dense tan head. Looks like a cola, with carbonation evident on the sides of the glass. Impressive malt aroma; sweet, with a hint of hop bitterness. Heavy, with a sweetness like a cream/milk stout. The hops shorten the finish well. The alcohol is quite warming as it goes down.

500ml ’06 swingtop. Thanks, BitBucket! Black. Thick, rocky tan head--surges up huge and settles to a thick blanket. Big musty, bready, yeasty nose with fruity overtones. Body’s a little on the low side of medium. Some carb but not too much. Heavy, somewhat sticky caramel sweetness with a definite strawberry or cassis note--this one probably fermented too warm. Bummer.